Parasite: Movie Review

Daring and inventive tale of class inequality.

One might wonder during the beginning of Parasite if the title is a loose translation from a Korean word which doesn’t have a direct English counterpart. The Oxford English Dictionary offers two definitions of parasite: “1. An organism that lives in or on an organism of another species (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the other's expense; 2. A person who habitually relies on or exploits others and gives nothing in return.” Not too long later, it’s clear that writer-director Bong Joon Ho meant the exact title he chose and Anglophones can assume nothing is lost in translation.		2019 Directed by: Bong Joon Ho Screenplay by: Han Jin Won, Bong Joon Ho Starring: Woo-sik Choi, Kang-ho Song

The Polka King: Movie Review

Bizarre, entertaining, half-baked.

The true story behind The Polka King is disturbing; the movie is a comedy. While those two facts can be successfully juxtaposed, it often results in an unsettling feeling, that something is missing. The comedy isn’t as funny as it could be, the tragedy isn’t as revolting as it could be. The result is a good, but half-baked tragi-comedy, light on everything but the polka music.		2017 Directed by: Maya Forbes Screenplay by: Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky Starring: Jack Black, Jenny Slate

Game Night: Movie Review

Exteme action and some laughs.

These big-styled action comedies have a really tough line to straddle where the difference between larger-than-life fun and over-the-top ridiculousness can be really thin and many just fall off on the wrong side. The most notable recent success is The Horrible Bosses where even when reality is thrown out the window, the audience is willing to go along with it. Game Night is always slipping off the edge – each new action sequence is larger than it should be, but it never completely falls off.		2018 Directed by: John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein Screenplay by: Mark Perez Starring: Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams

Colossal: Movie Review

Unique, interesting and entertaining.

If you have ever wanted to have a discussion about extremely self-destructive people, then you need to watch Colossal. A movie that’s more clever than it has any right to be. Gloria (Anne Hathaway) spends her nights getting drunk and then waking up in the morning (or afternoon) with a hangover unable to remember what happened the night before, and then rinse and repeat. Meanwhile there’s a giant monster terrorizing Seoul, South Korea. Interestingly, these two events are intimately connected.		2017 Directed by: Nacho Vigalondo Screenplay by: Nacho Vigalondo Starring: Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis

Opening Night: Movie Review

Delightfully funny, chaotically real.

What a blast. There are a number of things that films can do to overcome weak stories and characters, namely, have a quick pace with popular songs and funny lines, and that’s exactly what Opening Night does. Set in approximately real time backstage at a Broadway musical on opening night, the characters aren’t particularly innovative. There are a lot of gay men and drama queens, helpful hands who aren’t exactly helpful, and Nick (Topher Grace) – the stage manager trying to pull everything together.		2017 Directed by: Isaac Rentz Screenplay by: Gerry de Leon, Greg Lisi Starring: Topher Grace, JC Chasez, Taye Diggs, and Alona Tal

Lemon: Movie Review

Not a good crazy.

There’s a scene in Lemon where Michael Cera’s character says to Brett Gelman’s character, “I knew you were crazy, but I thought it was a good crazy. I liked it. I liked it a lot; I thought it was fun. Now I know you’re bad crazy; you’re unstable.” The quote also works as a good description of the film. A film that is very clearly crazy, but is it good crazy or bad crazy? Could it be a fun and likable kind of crazy? The answer to the latter question is “no.”		2017 Directed by: Janicza Bravo Screenplay by: Janicza Bravo, Brett Gelman Starring: Brett Gelman, Judy Greer

The Little Hours: Movie Review

A nun sex comedy goes crazy and sometimes funny.

The Little Hours is a medieval satirical farce, a sex romp through a nunnery and its countryside. The movie looks exactly like it could have been a Monty Python sketch. An idea that probably should have remained just that, but writer and director Jeff Baena and the cast with a background in sitcoms were able to stretch it out with enough laughs to keep the audience’s attention.		2017 Directed by: Jeff Baena Screenplay by: Jeff Baena Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie, Dave Franco, Kate Micucci, John C. Reilly

Joshy: Movie Review

Engaging characters shine through in a dark comedy balancing humour and tragedy.

Joshy’s tagline “The wedding’s off. The party’s on.” might make you think of a pure comedy born from a romantic comedy-styled break-up. You would probably be forgiven even though that’s not it. However, it is the type of movie where the less you know going in, the better it is. So I’ll just say, it’s a dark comedy. It starts dark, it gets funny, and then it gets heavy. And I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.		2016 Directed by: Jeff Baena Screenplay by: Jeff Baena Starring: Thomas Middleditch, Adam Pally

Café Society: Movie Review

A clash of secrets and affairs in two different worlds.

Café Society presents a new style of Woody Allen film. Stylistically it’s perhaps similar to Magic in the Moonlight – romance in the air even if everything else isn’t quite clicking. Thematically it’s very similar to almost every Woody Allen movie – romantic idealism, romantic idealism within a comedy of errors, murder, and belief that another city or another time period is better than the one you’re currently living in. But narratively, it’s unlike any story Allen has told before.		2016 Directed by: Woody Allen Screenplay by: Woody Allen Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart

The D Train: Movie Review

Juggling two great characters with comedy and disparate tones.

I love Jack Black and James Marsden more than the next person and the two of them starring in a character-based dark comedy is even better, but “The D Train” is a tough sell for even their biggest fans. First it takes two characters, both of whom are interesting and both of whom are based on very real and relatable character traits, and then it gives them a twist, and then it cartoonizes them. Or, they were cartoonized first, it can be a little hard to separate how this was all thought up in the first place.		2015 Directed by: Andrew Mogel, Jarrad Paul Screenplay by: Jarrad Paul, Andrew Mogel Starring: Jack Black and James Marsden

Irrational Man: Movie Review

Shifting from drama to comedy with murder.

Irrational Man doesn't feel like a Woody Allen movie, even though it is one. The beautiful cinematography comforts you as it opens with a very odd tone, and we know the older-man/younger-woman relationship story is going to come, but it still doesn't feel right. Part of the problem is that it's supposed to be one of his comedies, even though the lead character, Joaquin Phoenix as Abe, acts as though it's a drama.		2015 Directed by: Woody Allen Screenplay by: Woody Allen Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone

The Voices: Movie Review

A dark comedy that veers too far into a messy horror-comedy.

The Voices stars Ryan Reynolds as a really creepy version of a lonely everyman working at factory and shipping warehouse in a small town. He is just so clearly unhinged that when we see him talking to his pets, and they talk back to him, it's not surprising at all because no part of him lives in any kind of reality. I know the premise of a man who hears his pets talking to him is going to be a weird film, but here they just took things too far.		2014 Directed by: Marjane Satrapi Screenplay by: Michael R. Perry Starring: Ryan Renolds, Anna Kendrick and Gemma Arterton

Murder of a Cat: Movie Review

A deceptively clever and very funny murder mystery.

Fran Kranz is Clinton - a young man who lives in his mother's basement, wears a robe all day long, has his mother drive him around town, laughs at  Who's the Boss re-runs, and refers to his cat Mouser as his best friend. The comedy angle is clear and it works. Kranz's ability to portray a comedic every-man lends Clinton a perfect amount of familiarity but mixed with an over-the-top ridiculousness that allows the film to take us wherever it wants to go.		2014 Directed by: Gillian Greene Screenplay by: Christian Magalhaes, Robert Snow Starring: Fran Kranz, J.K. Simmons, Greg Kinnear and Nikki Reed

Horns: Movie Review

Original blending of genres wears too thin.

The story of a young man determined to get to the truth behind his girlfriend's murder, Horns adds elements of fantasy, comedy and horror to the mystery. Daniel Radcliffe stars as Ig Parrish. Ig was hopelessly in love until the death of girlfriend Merrin (Juno Temple). And then he was instantly pegged as the prime suspect, thrust into the media spotlight and banished into the hells of reality as an evil-doer.		2013 Directed by: Alexandre Aja Screenplay by: Keith Bunin Based on the novel by Joe Hill Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Max Minghella

Birdman: Movie Review

Flying away from the weight of ego, success and celebrity with humour, intelligence and ambition.

Birdman the incredibly ambitious film about celebrity, fame, popularity, acting, creating, fatherhood, relationships, death, media and the overwhelming weight of ego is indeed about all of that. Micheal Keaton as Riggan Thomson is the titular Birdman, a popular fictional superhero in the vain of Batman, Spiderman or Iron Man, but that was decades ago and now Riggan is a washed up former superhero hanging onto to the last vestiges of celebrity and who he knows himself as.		2014 Directed by: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Screenplay by: Alejandro Gonzales Inarrituo, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo Starring: Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis and Emma Stone

Maps to the Stars: Movie Review

Lost in a world of fame, tragedy, celebrity and incest.

Maps to the Stars Or: How To Turn Personal Tragedy Into Fame, Money and Celebrity is how I would title this thoroughly disturbing tale about the Hollywood lifestyle by director David Cronenberg and writer Bruce Wagner. Agatha (Mia Wasikowska) is new in LA, ready for a tour of stars’ homes, chasing the celebrity dream and determined to cash in on her twitter friendship with Carrie Fisher. Oh, and she might have ulterior motives.		2014 Directed by: David Cronenberg Screenplay by: Bruce Wagner Starring: Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, Evan Bird and Robert Pattinson

The Skeleton Twins: Movie Review

Establishing selfishness before their more interesting layers, the despondent skeleton twins are more lifeless than they should be.

In a movie marketed as a comedy, stars Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig should have no problem carrying it no matter what kind of difficulties the film may have. But The Skeleton Twins is not a comedy. It’s a very sullen drama that throws in a few scenes of comedy either because Hader and Wiig deserve the chance to make the audience laugh, or because the film wanted to prove how edgy they can be.		2014 Directed by: Craig Johnson Screenplay by: Mark Heyman, and Craig Johnson Starring: Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig

Calvary: Movie Review

The dark past of the Catholic Church turned into a darkly comedic tale of morality.

Calvary starts dark and never lightens up, but gives you plenty of humour and food for thought along the way. Father James (Brendan Gleeson) is a Catholic priest in a small village in Ireland. The opening confessional has one of his parishioners telling him they’re going to kill him in exchange for the molestation that he experienced at the hands of a priest when he was a young boy. Father James is innocent, but does that make him a good person?		2014 Directed by: John Michael McDonagh Screenplay by: John Michael McDonagh Starring: Brendan Gleeson

The Angriest Man in Brooklyn: Movie Review

The angry routine is dropped along with the comedy in favour of a heartfelt character drama.

Robin Williams is The Angriest Man in Brooklyn and for a dark comedy that casting does seem to be perfection, but Williams’ comedic rant routine is not the highlight of the film. What starts as a dark comedy becomes a drama and most viewers who are expecting to laugh won’t be ready for the dramatic shift in tone. The premise is Dr. Sharon Gill is living the worst day of her life and accidentally tells Henry Altmann that he’s living the last 90 minutes of his life.		2014 Directed by: Phil Alden Robinson Screenplay by: Daniel Taplitz Based on film by Assi Dayan Starring: Robin Williams, Mila Kunis

A Long Way Down: Movie Review

A new direction can seem uneven, but the original wit, whimsy, humour and insight is intact.

“A Long Way Down” is a dark comedy because, you know, suicide isn’t supposed to be funny. It’s like a light-hearted drama told straight and seriously. It is told with seriousness but includes characters and dialogue ripe for laughter. The movie makes the story more dramatic, but at the same time, not as dark as the book version it is based on. I’m a huge fan of author Nick Hornby and the same-titled novel.		2014 Directed by: Pascal Chaumeil Screenplay by: Jack Thorne Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, Imogen Poots, Aaron Paul